The Russellville Airport Commission agreed to support the construction of a maintenance building to house the airport's two fuel trucks during its meeting last week. The construction is expected to cost less than $75,000, 80 percent of which would be covered by a grant.

"I can't put them in a hangar because of fire code," airport manager Bobby Day said. "It's a fire hazard with all that fuel. It'll basically be a large two-car garage with a maintenance pit. $75,000 is a conservative number."

The Commission also discussed a proposed ramp project that will expand the apron, reroute an access road and rehabilitate the apron.

"We're going to turn that grass area into aircraft parking," Day said. "(On a recent weekend) the ramp was full, and we were trying to figure out where to put them. We had to park one large plane on the taxiway because we didn't have a place to put it on the ramp. Just finished our taxiway project. The FAA wanted the taxiway 100 feet further from the runway. So three's a level space between the runway and the taxiway. It's kind of a safety zone. So we lost ramp area to that project; this is getting it back for us."

The relocation of the access road sidesteps a safety concern.

"You don't want a road across a ramp," Day said. "The insurance you've got on your car wouldn't really be adequate if you happened to back into a jet. The intent is to move this access road over to the road that goes to the police firing range. We have some pretty deteriorated pavement in spots and addressing that is part of the project."

The cost of all of the proposed improvements will be about $1 million. A large portion of which will be covered by FAA grants, but the funds will come a little short of covering the entire project. Budgets for both the ramp project and the maintenance building are pending city council approval.

"We have about a $300,000 shortfall, so the bottom line is we won't do all of this," Day said. "As we refine these estimates, we'll see how far this will get us. We'll look at going to the state for a grant."

The Commission also received a status report on its miscellaneous paving project which Day said is "very close" to complete. Work on yard grates is still in progress. A culvert extension is in place east of hangar 4E, but Day is waiting for drier dirt to cover the extension and fuel truck turnaround. Erosion control sod has not been placed yet.

Commission member Andy Berkemeyer conducted a study, surveying similar airports in the state, to determine if Russellville's hangar lease fees were competitive. A spreadsheet was distributed to Commission members for review. At the February meeting, the Commission will decide if action should be taken on the rental fees.

"We want to be fair to our tenants, but we also want to be fair to our taxpayers," Day said. "We want to be as self-supporting as we can."

Day noticed recently that a portion of the airport property was zoned as R-2. The Planning Commission recommended last week to rezone the section to M-1.